But over the decades, events began to work in favor of at least reconsidering nuclear energy. Three Mile Island began to fade into memory even as the very real dangers from other types of conventional energy became increasingly obvious. Oil sometimes gets spilled. Coal mines can collapse. Gas plants can blow up. And emissions are of increasing concern.

Those who instead banked on alternative energy sources ran right up against stark realities: Power from the sun and the wind and the tides was simply not plentiful enough, or financially viable. So many big plans turned out to provide neither heat nor light. Maybe, just maybe, nuclear power deserved a second look.

It was slow in coming, and its full embrace was anything but assured.

And then came Japan. The ongoing nuclear disaster that followed the tsunami that followed the gigantic earthquake has left everyone in shock.

But the right time to make policy is not in the middle of a crisis. That’s when those with an agenda to push try to make hay. But cooler heads must prevail.

The NRC has given preliminary approval to the construction of two new nuclear power plants near Augusta, Ga. We applaud the decision. Our nation should not be setting its nuclear agenda based on what happened in Japan. We should instead be looking at the facts at hand — and to the future — which is exactly what the NRC is doing.